Robin of Snarkmarket had an excellent idea for his book project: Use Google Adwords to test character names. Putting that aside for a second, though (you can read all about it if you’d like), I really like what Robin had to say about playing with new internet stuff: “But okay, I’ll be honest. This was mostly just an excuse to try a new tool. Any nerd will tell you that tools can provide their own intrinsic rewards. There’s an aspect of exploration to it, too: you’re pressing out into new tool-territory, learning about what you can and can’t do.”

I love that. I’ve tried to explain to lots of folks that aren’t so into the web that the easiest way to get a handle on things is just screw around (I’m sure I’ve written it here before as well). It’s hard to wrap your head around this stuff fully (Google search ads being a great example) until you’ve tried them yourself.